The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of apple tree Malus pumila Mill and which has been denominated varietally as ‘PB-148’; and more specifically to an apple tree which is principally characterized as to novelty by bearing an attractive, highly colored apple having a good flavor, and shelf life and which is ripe for harvesting and shipment under the prevailing ecological conditions existing in the Columbia Basin area of central Washington State on and about August 30th.
The present variety of apple tree Malus pumila Mill resulted from a cross pollination which was made by me of a ‘Gala’ apple tree (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,637) with a New Zealand Red Crab Apple Tree, which is denominated varietally as ‘Jack Humm’ and which is unpatented. The variety ‘Jack Humm’ was derived from a cross of the unpatented Crab Apple Tree ‘Gorgeous’ and the unpatented variety ‘John Downie.’ The variety ‘John Downie’ is known for producing fruit which are excellent for jelly making. This cross-pollination occurred within the cultivated area of my orchard which is located in Central Otago, New Zealand during the 1987 growing season. After observing the characteristics of this new tree for a number of years, budwood from the new ‘PB-148’ apple tree, then growing in Central Otago, New Zealand, was sent to the quarantine facility which is located at Prosser, Wash. in August of 2000. Following the treatment of the budwood by the Prosser facility, virus-free budwood was then released from the facility in August, 2001. Thereafter, this novel tree was asexually reproduced using this same budwood by grafting this same budwood into test trees which were then growing on ‘M26’ rootstock (unpatented) at a commercial test orchard which was located near Ephrata, Wash. Thereafter, the second generation grafted trees, which were growing in Ephrata, Wash. were observed for three cropping seasons and the fruit produced from same was repeatedly compared and contrasted with the fruit earlier produced on the original mother tree which was still growing in my orchard which is located in Central Otago, New Zealand. These subsequent botanical and pomological comparisons of the fruit produced by the second generation trees with that of the original mother tree revealed that the second generation grafted trees produced fruit, and had other botanical characteristics which appeared to be identical to that displayed by the original mother tree.